Ken “Dart” Malan, 78, retired Group Health physician, died from cancer on April 5, 2010 at Evergreen Hospice in Kirkland, Wash. He was born Aug. 21, 1931 in Ogden, Utah, son of Kennett H. Malan and Maureen Peck. He spent some of his happiest days working with his beloved grandpa, Gideon H. Malan, on their mountain, and with his lifelong friends from Polk Elementary, fondly referred to as “the sons of Polk.” He was on winning swimming and skiing teams at Ogden High School.
Robert “Bob” Sheldon Dixon passed peacefully on April 12, 2010 at St. Joseph’s Hospital after complications from a cardiac arrest. Bob was born in Seattle, Wash., on March 2, 1954. He graduated from Lake Washington High School in 1972. Bob moved to Friday Harbor in 1977. Bob was a skilled meat cutter for more than 30 years in Friday Harbor, employed by Verne Howard.
It was a windy and cold April 2, and 10-year-old Grace Shaw checked on the hummingbirds that visit the feeders lining the porch of her family’s home on Bailer Hill Road. She saw what looked like a leaf stuck to one of the feeders; a closer look revealed it was a hummingbird, its feet stuck to the little ledge around the feeder. She carefully removed the bird from the feeder and called her mom. “I thought it was dead,” Rose Shaw said, remembering that some of the bird’s feathers were missing.
Laurence “Larry” Bauer died Tuesday, April 6, at Swedish Hospital, Seattle, from complications related to a severe stroke. His children, Sara and Laura, and their mother, Ingrid, were with him when he died. His death was peaceful. He was 69.
Gayle Ann Williams of Cape San Juan is the author of “Tsunami Blue,” a paranormal romance just released by Dorchester Publishing. New York Times bestselling author Stella Cameron (“Out of Body,” “Cypress Nights”) said “Tsunami Blue” is “an intriguing mile-a-minute adventurous tale of sexy survival in a paranormal world.” “Tsunami Blue” is Williams’ debut novel. It was chosen for publication after winning Dorchester’s Shomi Writing Contest.
A fresh breeze of sweet acoustic folk sounds flows into Friday Harbor when The Wailin’ Jennys grace San Juan Community Theatre’s Whittier stage on Sunday, 7:30 p.m. Winners of Canada’s 2005 Juno Award for Roots and Traditional Album of the Year, the group has been gathering a large following as it has embarked on North American and European tours (“quiet, warm, subtle, mellifluous, almost too good to be true,” noted British daily The Independent). In fact, they appeared in March on Garrison Keillor’s national radio program, “A Prairie Home Companion.”
How do you read a book? Are you looking for beautiful prose or gripping action that makes you turn the pages? Do you crave characters that make you weep or a setting in a landscape or time far, far away? Or are you, like one of my favorite characters, Alice, looking for conversation? Do you like to peruse the pictures and perhaps the captions and maybe only then read the text if your interest is piqued? Sam Connery is the kind of writer that visually oriented readers will like.
The San Juan Islands Museum of Art & Sculpture Park (IMA) is sounding the call to Washington, Oregon and British Columbia artists to enter IMA’s juried visual arts competition, “Green: On the Edge.” The upcoming summer exhibition asks artists to tackle the question, “What does ‘green’ mean to you?”
The bounds of reality are dissolved in the latest offering from theater company Island Stage Left. Within the solid reality of the venue, San Juan County Fairgrounds, Sarah Ruhl’s “The Clean House” is due to be performed in all its original playfulness. “She has enormous imagination,” director Helen Machin-Smith says of the playwrite. Ruhl, who was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize two years in a row, is stylistically drawn to allegory and magic-realism.
Doors open 5 p.m. Friday at Roche Harbor Pavilion for a spaghetti feed and auction to benefit Sophia Grace Krieg, a 6-month-old who is awaiting a heart transplant. Sophia is the grand-niece of Debbie Sandwith.
Friday Harbor’s Kasey Rasmussen will have one more shot at the state title. An eighth-grader at Friday Harbor Middle School, Kasey earned a third consecutive trip to the state Geographic Bee finals on the strength of a competitive written exam.
It’s as if that pile of pretty cupcakes had Shelby Dunn’s name on them. The 5-year-old girl from Fremont, Calif. visited San Juan Community Theatre on Saturday with her family for Elegant Edibles, and wasn’t in the theater lobby for five minutes before picking the Easter goodies in the annual benefit bake sale.
Army Sgt. Tom Bauschke of Friday Harbor has received the Bronze Star for “Valorous and Meritorious actions while engaged in direct combat operations in support of Operation Enduring Freedom on 1 May 2009.”
